The Kremlin announced on Thursday, Oct. 10, that Antonov had been officially relieved of his duty after seven years of service.
According to him, U.S.-Russian relations, which are at "arguably the lowest point in their history" will plunge into an "uncontrolled nosedive" if Ukraine gets the green light from Washington. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with President Joe Biden last month, where he said that firing U.S. Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) inside the Russian territory could break the deadlock in the two-and-a-half-year war. (Related: Putin warns West of nuclear retaliation if Ukraine fires Western-supplied long-range missiles into Russian territory.)
"America will not be able to sit it out across the ocean," Antonov said. "A global nuclear catastrophe would affect everyone."
He claimed that U.S. strategists were already blithely modeling the impact that an outbreak of nuclear warfare would have on Russia and Ukraine. But at the same time, he said that they mistakenly believe that the imminent catastrophe will only affect Europe and Russia, which for him is extremely short-sighted.
"Now, amid talks of long-range missiles, [Russian President] Vladimir Putin has sent a clear warning to the United States and its allies," he said. "He reminded them of the direct involvement of American so-called 'technical specialists' in planning and carrying out strikes against Russia."
But the Biden administration has declared an unwavering position to continue military assistance to Ukraine, and many NATO allies have offered similar pledges. The White House also attempted to downplay the impact of its long-range missiles, he added.
Last month State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller insisted no magic would change the face of the conflict.
"When we approve any new weapon system or any new tactic, we look at how it's going to affect the entire battlefield and Ukraine's entire strategy. And that's what we'll continue to do," Miller said.
But Antonov insisted that America's green light was Russia's red line as he compared U.S. policymakers to "a diver frozen before the decisive jump into the abyss."
Meanwhile, Antonov accused the U.S. of being behind revolutions that have forced Moscow-friendly governments from office in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Russia seized the province of Crimea in response to Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2014 and poured across the country's borders in February 2022 as Ukraine pressed for NATO membership.
The retiring envoy claimed that Russia's warnings had been met with "silence and smirks" in the West.
"Year after year, it has been militarily exploiting European territory, conducting waves of NATO expansion to the East," he said of the West. "It has organized color revolutions and anti-constitutional coups, increasingly encircling Russia in a hostile ring, and as the decisive battering ram it chose Ukraine."
According to him, this only confirms that the political elites have set themselves the task not just to defeat Russia but to preserve the old world order, based on the rules favorable to NATO countries.
Antonov confirms Russia does not care about the U.S.'s 2024 election results
Antonov also insisted that Russia had no particular interest in the outcome of the election.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris described the Russian plans as "proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable," when she met Zelensky last month.
Meanwhile, GOP's Trump has repeatedly promised to end the war in 24 hours and his running mate JD Vance said the plan could involve the existing front line constituting a new border with a "demilitarized zone" separating the two countries.
But Antonov said that they are staying "clear-eyed and understand that in the current circumstances, there is little chance for people who may assume power in the United States not to ultimately find themselves under the dense influence of the 'deep state' and corporate structures that are Russophobic towards Russia."
He said that America's blind support for the Kyiv regime and its terrorism on Russian territory "puts an end to even an attempt to approach the discussion of normalization of relations."
Similarly, he expressed his disappointment at attempts to silence pro-Russian U.S. media outlets.
"Any voices of reason in Washington today are silenced or written off as 'Kremlin propaganda,'" he claimed. "The recent unjustified sanctions against Russian journalists are in this vein, as well as provocative attacks by local intelligence services against Dmitry Simes, Scott Ritter and compatriots living in America."
What he described as a "brutal cleansing of the information space in America" has left the field clear for "poisonous commentaries about the harm of any conversation with the Russians."
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